Queer, Pregnant, and Parenting--February and March 2013! - Page 3

[starling&diesel]

Glad to hear that S2 is on the mend!

I can't stand liners.  Fiddly, have to be purchased, hard on plumbing and they scrunch up and aren't all that helpful at all.  I have no problem with infant poopy dipes, and even with toddler poopy dipes, I just knock out what I can into the toilet, chuck it into the dry pail, and wash as is.  H has super mushy poop compared to his sister ... so it's been muckier longer that I would like, but still fine.  Some people use a spatula or a sprayer.  Not us.  I like a simple, uncomplicated process.  Worst part might be the occasional laundered blueberry or bit of carrot left in the washing machine after.  Nothing a quick wipe-out can't fix!

[Tourneymama]

Thank you for adding our due date to the list!! We are actually thinking baby boy will be born in June sometime, but we will of course keep the July 4th date up there for now ;) DW has had such the opposite pregnancy than she did before-With our DD, she was deathly ill, hypermesis (sp?) and just felt rotten all the way through. This time she said she hasn't even felt pregnant at all, which is odd for her, but she is definetly enjoying it and she totally deserves it!! I am thankful that she gets to experience how a pregnancy should really feel, with a great outcome this time...So we are 19 weeks now and she hasn't really felt him move much which freaks us both out majorly! I know he is okay, we have had a few ultrasounds with the last being 2 weeks ago. Just anxiously awaiting for him to start kicking the heck out of her, rofl. She is a bigger girl, so I know that is the only reason and that is the ONLY thing holding our worries and anxiety at bay. But soon hopefully!! :~) As for clothes (I saw someone menton them) we have way too much. I have a horrible baby shopping addicton, ha ha. Also, we just pulled out all of Ellianas clothes that we stored away from 2011 and went through them. Took out what was able to be saved for a boy, kept a few things that were sentimental from our DD and are selling the rest-Which feels nice to do finally. We just had a hard time letting go of things that we had of hers....There was A LOT of stuff. I think we counted over 1,500 pieces of clothing in 7 rubbermaid totes!! Ugh. We were able to save and use for baby boy, about  300 pieces of those. I am glad there was so much we could keep for him :)

Anyway sorry for rambling-TTYS ladies!

[AmandaHope]

On cloth diapering, we love it....but only do it part time.  Plenty of people make it work out and about, but we use Earth's Best disposables (reasonably priced through AmazonMom) out and about and overnight, and we use pocket diapers at home during the day. Poop hasn't been so bad. Lately, we have a sense of when L will need to go, so we put her in a disposable.  Cloth poops were fine for a long time after she started solids (since they were solid and we could just flick them into the toilet), but lately her poop has gotten super mushy again (the result of lots of nursing--yawn--and a steady diet of avocados, I suspect), so the sposies are convenient.  I think sometimes new parents think that you have to commit entirely to one method.... All cloth is definitely the most cost effective and environmentally friendly way to go (unless you live in an area with serious water shortages), but I figure that even part-time cloth is better than no cloth at all!

Sara: I agree--glad everyone is feeling better!

Starling: can we have the blog link again pretty please (pm?). I was using facebook to follow it and miss it!

AFU: Still thinking thinking thinking about night-weaning and doing nothing about it, mostly out of fear and exhaustion.  The funny story of the day is that our nanny texted me asking if we listen to Justin Beiber, because she's almost sure that Lilah was trying to sing one of his songs.  Z (the 10-year-old) does have a Pandora station that includes some Beiber, so that must be it.  Lilah sings all the time. It is hilarious. But it is usually Elizabeth Mitchell and other children's folk music, not Beiber! Ugh. 
 

Here is a fun pic (from Hawaii in Dec), since I haven't been round these parts in a while:

[DesertSunsets]

I love that photo of Lilah, Ahope!  She's getting to be so grown-up.  Tell her to stop that. 

[carmen358]

We had some liners given to us and tried them for a day...we also disliked them and didn't find them helpful at all.

Amanda, great photo!

Seraf, so glad to hear Soren is feeling better - how is his iron level?

Afm: I'm trucking along here and seriously busy with work. Which is good as it's less time for me to stress. I've started a course this week for the entire week which is very intense. It is a 4 week program that includes a trip to Tokyo. I'm excited but nervous....I'll be about 23 weeks when I go. We decided for DP and DD to not join me as I will be very busy...it's the first time I'll be away from DD even overnight.

I'm 14 weeks today and some days I feel a ton of wiggles and other days very little to none. It freaks me out but I'm trying to relax about it. We're also busy packing and getting ready to stage our place for photos to be taken. SO MUCH to do!!

[seraf]

Carmen, wow, I hope you get to have some fun in Tokyo.

Amanda, she is a cutie!

I know we were talking about diapers recently, I made a video for a different thread about what we use under our wool and basically how we diaper. I don't think I explained in the video that the purple rectangle I used was wool. It's a pretty bad video, taken right before nap time and 5 minutes long, so watch at your own risk if you are interested enough.
or here's the link if the embed doesn't work.

[outdoorsy]

Starling - So you're saying you wash the poopy diapers in your regular clothes washing machine? Wifey says "no way" to that for sanitary reasons, and I kind of agree. She doesn't want too much poop in the machine, and she doesn't want to repeat what she had to do when her youngest brother was little -- dunking the diapers in the toilet by hand to get mushy poop off before they went in the machine. I admire you for doing what you do, but I'm not sure yet what we'll be doing.

Seraf - Thanks for the video. I am going to check out some YouTube videos on cloth diapering and see if I can learn more about how it's done.

[seraf]

Outdoorsy, we wash poopy diapers in the machine. Where else would you wash them? Many people run 2 cycles including a hot one. The machine seems clean to me. Some people use a camp washer, like a bucket and a plunger, might work for your poopies? We practice EC, which isn't everyone's style, but if you put the baby on the potty for poops, you won't have nearly as many poopy diapers. Another popular product is a diaper sprayer (I'm thinking these are more popular than liners these days). I've never used one, but many people swear by them.

[KnittingTigers]

Yeah, we wash poopy dipes in our regular machine. You do two cycles generally, and I've never seen poop left over in the machine, or smelled anything funky. I do have a friend with an HE machine who bought a separate, non-HE washer for her dipes because she felt that the HE machine wasn't getting them clean enough (not enough water?). But she's the only person I know with a dedicated diaper washing machine (and she has a big house!). But if you've got the room, pick up a cheap, reconditioned washer at the Scratch and Dent and have a dedicated diaper machine.
 

[seraf]

We have an HE machine, too, it's doesn't use enough water for prefolds. We have no problem with flats. No poop smell, frequent undigested carrots and raisins, tho.

[outdoorsy]

We have an HE front-loading washer and an ancient dryer. I am looking for whatever cloth system is easiest for reluctant cloth diaperers. Low cost would be good, too, but I know those things may be inversely proportionate.

[starling&diesel]

We do a cold soak and a hot wash and the machine is super clean after. And we're in a housing co-op and no else has complained either. We used to have an HE machine and it took a longer cycle, but as still fine. We use a very small amount of VIP soap for each wash, plus borax in the soak every fifth wash or so. The machine always comes out as sparkly as the dipes!

AmandaH ... I'll put the link up when my blog is working again. For anyone who wants to sleuth, my site is firstnamastname.com ... First name : creepy Steven King book/movie starring Sissy Spacek. Last name: like the famous non-PC computer. Sorry for the subterfuge, but I don't want my real name to be googleable here. Anyway, if you go to the site, you'll see that it is under major reno's. Sigh.

[seraf]

I have only done cloth. I get grossed out by wet sposies, picking up a kid who feels like he's wearing a bag of hot jello makes me go eww. So pee and poo are generally gross but become very common when you have tiny babes. I have no problems washing clothes and diapers together. Prefolds are pretty easy, but my machine doesn't cut it (there's no poop residue, they simply smell bad when they get peed in, so I'm guessing there's old pee trapped in the innermost layers). Fitteds are easier, but same problem. We have one kind of prefolds that I love and wash clean in our machine, but I found them at Gabe's in the car care section and have never seem them since. Besides the way I did in the video, you can just fold them in thirds and lay them in a cover. Very nice.

Pockets might be right up your ally.

[starling&diesel]

Tourney ... Holy clothing tsunami! That is a lot! How fun to go through it and pick out what you'll use for this baby.
Our kids share a small four-drawer dresser. We probably have too little, but it seems to work. They probably each have five shirts, five bottoms, three PJs. We do have a box in the closet with bigger sizes, but that's it. Where did you store everything?

[wishin'&hopin']

Another "we wash the diapers in our washing machine and have never had a problem" family chiming in!  We used prefolds/covers and stuffed bumgenius for overnight.  One cold wash then a hot wash and extra rinse.  Very occasionally we would find an undigested blueberry or something.  BUT keep in mind, prior to starting solids (so before 6 months), breastfed baby poo is the consistency of yogurt AND water soluble--so, you can just throw the diaper in the wash, regardless of poop/pee status.  We had a diaper sprayer and DW liked it quite a bit--I actually (once we needed to get solid poop off) preferred the dunk/swish method.  (Oh, yeah, we don't have a HE machine--just a top loader) I know lots of people who use HE machines and successfully cloth diaper tho'.  

[seraf]

Holy cow, starling, we probably go through that many clothes in a day, minus the PJs.

[Sphinxy]

outdoorsy - I'm very interested to hear what you come up with - it sounds like we have a lot in common. I previously looked a bit online at these "hybrid systems" that seem to support both cloth or eco-friendly disposable inserts inside a reusable cover (like gdiapers and flip diapers), but I got a bit overwhelmed and had to take a break. It was starting to seem like it is not worth the investment in these systems until you have the kid and can determine which cover is going to fit them best. For example, I read a bunch of gdiapers reviews on amazon - some people rave about them and some people complain that it doesn't fit a slender-bodied baby as well, which can lead to leaks. 

m&m - I had to look up what a snoogle was after your post - I can imagine that would feel really great! Even now I usually sleep with a spare pillow between my knees because I have wider hips and side-sleeping can be uncomfortable. I'm really in love with my regular-sized buckwheat pillow, maybe I will look into a buckwheat body pillow once my belly starts to grow. How goes the nausea?

Afm, I'm feeling pretty emotional these last few days. Last night I had a good cry and today is a little easier. That's really the worst of my symptoms right now. It can get into a tough cycle to break, because when I feel sad/anxious/irritable about something, I then start to worry that my baby can pick up on that and that it will negatively affect them. Crazy hormones! Aside from that, my symptoms are mild. Sometimes I worry that my lack of symptoms means something is wrong, like I should be more nauseous, tired, etc. I'm really not as tired as I was last week, probably because the business travel has settled down. And I'm still figuring out the best snacking routine to keep my body feeling good throughout the day. I don't usually like the way I feel when I eat wheat-based foods, but crackers are so easy to keep around that I've definitely gotten stuck in that rut this week. I'm thinking that when I go to the grocery store next I'll try switch to peanuts and veggies with hummus. 

[cordelia15]

Hi All. . just a quick check in after a LONG weekend away

Sphinxy. . we have the sumner video monitor..I don't love the quality for the pic but it works pretty well, ours did break at some point and they replaced it so customer service is good too.  Don't worry about lack of symptoms, people all just do things differently.  My sister never had a single symptom her entire pregnancy!  But I know it's hard to not have some super visible sign that things are all progressing. 

Pokey .  sorry about the placenta previa and I echo everyone else that I hope it resolves 

carmen.  .what an exciting opportunity to travel to Tokyo!  Have fun. 

AFU. . just got back from a long weekend to west texas to go visit KD's (for DS#1) dying mom.  It was actually amazing and I am so glad we went, although it was exhausting and intense.  She was doing much better, in the sense that she was alert and out of ICU so she did get to meet DS.  We also met almost ALL of KD's extended family, and everyone was pretty amazing and welcoming.  We had met several people from before but def never expected to meet all of the extended more conservative folks.  KD's mom was so happy to meet DS and on the last day, it was so hard to take DS away bc we all knew he would never see her again. But it did make me appreciate our slightly odd, but wonderful, created family.  

[DesertSunsets]

We have a frontload HE machine, and we wash all our diapers in it without any trouble. An initial quick wash to get rid of most of the poo, then a long, hot wash with Rockin Green soap and an extra rinse. Never any poo in the machine.
When initially researching cloth, I wanted the g Diapers. But I also read the reviews about them leaking and not fitting all body types well. We ended up with Thirsties covers and prefolds, and it's so so easy. The Thirsties seem to fit well on many body types, and it has an extra gusset at the leg, preventing leakage really well.
About once a month, I have to strip the prefolds and inserts, because our water is hard and it builds up and prevents the diapers from absorbing as much as they can, but that too is easy.
Good luck.

[Tourneymama]

I know Starling, it was/is crazy!! We love this store here called Once Upon A Child...They sell very gently used baby & kids clothes and have such amazing prices and cute, cute stuff! Like $1-3 for shirts, $1 for onsies etc...We just go there too much, ha ha. Donated some things to this pregnancy center for women who are pregnant and can't afford clothes, so that felt nice. Anyhow we stored them in a bunch of Rubbermaid totes with snapping lids, and put them at first in our donors house-He and another friend of ours came to our house and took everything baby related to his house, while we were in the hospital. We didn't want to have to come home and look at anything baby related, so they cleared house for us. Since then, donor helped my DW build a shed behind our house and we moved everything back here to the shed ;) DW just decided she was okay to go through and keep/get rid of clothes we had...It was very peaceful and nice-A few tears but overall a nice experience....(Forgot a lot of what we had bought etc..so it was neat to re-see it again, lol) I am buying a 4 or 6 drawer dresser for baby boy, so I can organize better. DW and I have had to make a pact that we won't buy anymore baby clothes at all. He has enough to get him from newborn to about 9 months...One day here soon, I have to switch my DD (12) and my DS (14) rooms. DD has the huge bedroom and DS has the smaller one. Since we were having a girl, she was gonna share that room, but now that a boy is on the way, DS will get the bigger room to share with baby....Blah!! Sorry for rambling on!